Amendments To Patents

The current Patent Law was amended on July 1, 2004 introducing stricter criteria for determining whether an amendment filed after grant is allowable. Any amendment is thus now subject to a three step test pursuant to Art. 64 of the Patent Law, namely: 1) narrowing of the breadth of the granted claims, correction of errors or clarifications, 2) antecedent basis for the amendment must be found in the original specification or drawings, and 3) the amendment must not expand or alter the breadth of the granted claims. There is scope for loosening on a case to case basis.